How Much Does a Website Cost?

Probably the question we’re asked the most is “How much does a website cost?”

We appreciate that if you’re in the market for an effective website and you’ve never commissioned one before, the choice of options might appear bewildering. So the purpose of this article is to give you some useful insight into the way websites design is priced and what you should expect for your budget.

If you’ve done any research, you’ll have soon discovered that a website can cost anything from a few hundred pounds through to several thousands of pounds.

But why does ‘Website A’ cost only a fraction of the cost of ‘Website B’? What’s the difference between the two websites and is it worth investing the extra money?

Let’s see if we can answer those questions. However, if you’re in a hurry and just want some prices then you can head over to our website design page where you’ll find our fantastic website packages which start from only £799.

How Much Does a Car Cost?

An odd and irrelevant question you might think? Well, whilst most people have never purchased a website before, many of you will have bought a car at some point so it’s an analogy that will help you to understand why one website might vary in cost from another.

So let’s look at two cars you could buy with wildly different budgets…

At the most basic level, both of these cars deliver their primary function – they’ll get you from A to B. But answering honestly, which one would you prefer to drive on a daily basis? We’d guess that most of you would rather own car B but perhaps others prefer the price of car A? So is it better to go as cheap as possible or invest in something of better quality?

Understanding ‘PLFRR’ in Relation to Cost

We tried to think of a nice acronym here but it became too much of a distraction so let’s stick with the way we can compare both cars and websites – the PFLRR rating. This might sound a little complex but it really isn’t. What PLFRR considers is some pretty simple elements…

Performance

Looks

Functions

Reliability

Return

Hopefully the reason why we chose to use the analogy of buying a car is now becoming apparent as the PLFRR rating can be applied to both websites and cars so it will help you to truly appreciate what the difference is from a website that costs a hundred pounds (Website A for example purposes) to the ones costing several thousands of pounds (Website B for example purposes).

Understanding & Appreciating The Cost

So now we’re going to compare:

A website and a car that costs £100 (A) against,

A website and a car that costs £2500 (B).

Let’s looks at what you get for your money…

CARS – PERFORMANCE

CAR A – It’s going to be slow. 0-60 in 14 seconds and a top speed of 95 miles per hour means you’ll get nowhere in a hurry.CAR B – A modern engine provides a very respectable 0-60 in 9.5 seconds and can top 125 miles per hour so it’s quick.

WEBSITES – PERFORMANCE

WEBSITE A – Won’t be optimised for speed so might be slow to load which is bad for users and search engines like Google.WEBSITE B – Will be finely optimised and tested to load as quickly as possible so browsing this website will be fast and fluid.

CARS – LOOKS

CAR A – Let’s not beat around the bush here, this car looks dated and plain ugly. Not a car you’d be proud to drive.CAR B – Has clean, modern lines and is a more contemporary colour so you’d be happy to have this on your driveway.

WEBSITES – LOOKS

WEBSITE A – Good design takes times and at this budget, you’ll not get much in the way of bespoke design. Will look bland and generic.WEBSITE B – Every element will be designed from scratch to be unique and eye-catching. A website that will have a visual ‘wow factor’.

CARS – FUNCTIONS

CAR A – This car has no mod-cons and will leave the driver feeling frustrated at it’s lack of convenience features.CAR B – Has everything from remote central locking to air-con so the owners driving experience is a pleasure.

WEBSITES – FUNCTIONS

WEBSITE A – Nothing more than a digital brochure with static content and no features to encourage visitor interaction. Simply boring.WEBSITE B – Provides a range of useful and interesting functions that will encourage visitors to really engage with the content.

CARS – RELIABILITY

CAR A – Built with outdated technology so reliability will be a real issue. RAC membership will be a must with this car.CAR B – Has a host of features to manage and monitor the cars systems which dramatically increases it’s reliability.

WEBSITES – RELIABILITY

WEBSITE A – Built with older, clunky coding techniques so don’t expect reliability for this website on modern devices like smart-phones.WEBSITE B – Is built using up-to-date coding methods and rigorously tested to perform perfectly on everything from a PC to an iPad.

CARS – RETURN

CAR A – Cheap to buy but costs a fortune in maintenance and it’s inefficient engine means regular trips to the petrol station.CAR B – With modern engineering, this car will cost very little to maintain and run so your ownership will be a frugal affair.

WEBSITES – RETURN

WEBSITE A – Might be cheap but won’t help your business to gain new customers so even at this price, a poor investment with little return.WEBSITE B – Will be optimised to help your business find new customers 24/7. A website at this price will pay for itself many times over.

Make Sense But Still Don’t Know How Much a Website Costs?

The bottom line is that a good Web Design Company will produce the best website they can for the budget you have. If you only have £100 to buy a car then you can just about get something but don’t expect too much and it’s the same principle when buying a website.

What you need to determine from the outset is precisely what you want a website for and ensure that every penny of your budget is focussed on achieving that primary aim. A well-built website can always accommodate additional features or an enhanced design at a later date when your budget allows for it.

For example, if you want a website that will allow your customers to get an online quote but you only have a budget of, say £900, you will get a website that is capable of producing online quotes but less time (and therefore money) will be invested in the design.

However, if you’ve got a budget of £2,000 then you’ll be able to get a website that can provide online quotes AND will have a stunning, eye-catching design created to your exact requirements.

Remember: Caveat Emptor

To use our car analogy again, if you took your car to a garage and they said they’d be able to do some major repairs at £8.00 an hour, you’d be highly suspicious of the quality of that work wouldn’t you (most Garages charge an average of £60.00 per hour)?

Yet if you pay £100 for a website thinking you’ll get hours of support and quality design time, think again. An experienced, qualified Web Designer will command an hourly rate of around £50.00 per hour so realistically, what type of website can you expect if it’s built in a few hours? Something has to give and the net result is usually the Designer taking advantage of the Clients inexperience in commissioning a website.

So What Next? Turning Questions into Solutions

Hopefully this article has helped you to understand that the cost of a website depends on a whole host of different factors. It’s worth remembering that website design, as with most things in life, you do get what you pay for. Pay peanuts and expect a poor website. However, that doesn’t mean to say that you can’t get an effective website without a bank-busting budget.

Here’s a few options for you…

If your budget allows, click HERE to find out more about our web design services.